CALIFORNIA
Butano State Park
Oops, did I not do anything for over a month? Anyways, my company has been nice enough to give us periodic “Friyays” where we get some Fridays off to just relax and do whatever. I wanted to get out of the house after a week of virtual chatting and staring at computer screens so I opened up my 20 State Parks in 2020 goal document and selected Butano State Park as today’s destination. This state park has a pretty limited selection of hiking but is located in Pescadero somewhat nearby the ocean.
Jackson Flats Loop is touted as 5 miles long, and is the second longest hike to the Canyon Loop which covers nearly every trail in the park but is 9+ miles long. It was supposed to be a scorcher today (and it was) plus we weren’t sure how fun the trail would be, so we picked the shorter Jackson Flats Loop.
Sidenote that parking for this park is extremely limited, maybe 10-15 spaces total? We parked off the side of the road and walked to the visitor center. Also, the entrance fee was 10 dollars! I wish California had a state park pass like Texas.
Anyways, the first part of the Jackson Flats trail starts by the visitor center (currenty closed) and goes pretty steeply uphill through standard redwood and Douglas-fir.
With the incline and the heat, the first few miles of the hike were pretty strenuous. The end of the Jackson Flats trail is where you can decide whether to return by the fire road, or do the whole Canyon loop. We decided to check out the fire road to see if it looked cool, otherwise we wanted to turn back around. This popped us out on this completely different kind of terrain
The sandy, rocky trail had less shade but it did have some pretty nice views of the surrounding tree covered hills
Since it was so hot out we made pretty slow progress up this part. Without the shade of the trees we felt the heat pretty intensely. We took a pretty long break at the next fork in the shade to drink water and sit down! Thankfully, the fire road actually is pretty scenic, and is covered by trees again. Once we started heading back down, it became cooler and easier to manage.
Normally I don’t like walking on fire roads because generally they’re boring but look, this wasn’t so bad:
Finally, to get back to our car, we had to get off the fire road and get on Ox Mill Trail which was a little sketchy on first glance but had some nice plant life and thankfully wasn’t too long.
We got burgers at Alice’s as per tradition afterwards. They now have COVID-friendly outdoor seating which was a big relief!
Overall I wasn’t expecting much from this state park but I thought the trail was nice and challenging, with a decent view. There were tons of butterflies and lizards on the trail which was a nice bonus as well. I’m glad to knock it off the list!